Antonio Franco founded the “Cantine Franco” winery in Valdobbiadene in 1919.

Valdobbiadene is located at the foot of the Prealps, in the Venetian region, and is famous for the Prosecco vine and wine production.
This winery is proud to be one of the oldest in Valdobbiadene, located in the town centre, not far away from the countryside and the vineyards.

Thanks to a careful and wise management, the estate has been growing and evolving throughout three generations of producers. Antonio founded it, Nino expanded it and Primo improved the company performance throughout the years. 1982, when Primo took over its management, was the turning point.

Primo began to travel and to successfully export the wines in Europe as well as in the Americas and the Far East. At the same time he invested in the production process in order to make higher quality wines, eliminating all those wines that were atypical for the area. He also started to monitor closely the grape cultivation with the aim of achieving high quality from the raw material level to the final product.

Primo Franco was one of the first pioneers to export the Prosecco and to introduce a different sparkling wine than Champagne into the international market. He has been successful, thanks to his open mind personality, his spontaneity, reliability and competence as well as his charm and ability to communicate his love for his job, and last but not least thanks to his high quality and delicious wines.

Nino Franco  -  Evolution of the Prosecco itself

"Cantine Franco" was founded in 1919 by Antonio Franco in the Valdobbiadene, a village in the Veneto region, in north-eastern Italy. The area, characterized by hills and vineyards on narrow, grassy terraces, is considered to be the most prestigious for Prosecco production. The winery, one of the oldest in the Valdobbiadene, an area which joined the elite ranks of UNESCO World Heritage Site vineyard areas in 2019. Right from the start, Antonio, set out to make a quality product. With his son Nino, who carried on the tradition, the winery grew, consolidated and expanded. 

Antonio, had from the beginning the aim of making a quality product. With his son Nino, who continued the tradition, the vineyard grew, consolidated and expanded. When Primo took over the management, first with his father Nino and later alone, he modernized the winery to produce higher quality wines. Primo, convinced of the need to control production right from the beginning, began to carefully monitor the grape cultivation and experimented with new planting technology and the use of old clones. He became a pioneer in exporting Prosecco, and introducing a different sparkling wine than Champagne, to the international market.

Thanks to careful and wise management, the vineyard Nino Franco has grown and developed over three generations. Today Primo and his daughter Silvia produce about 80,000 cases of sparkling wine per year, although much of his work focuses on three single-vineyard wines from plots of less than 5 hectares. All grapes are harvested manually from extremely steep and diverse vineyards in this DOCG area.